The Other Path
by The Awesome Pen
Summary: The sandaime opts for something different, and as a result, Naruto mostly grows up outside of Konoha with Jiraiya acting as a guardian and a teacher. Naruto soon finds himself aspiring to become a ninja, a powerful one. With that goal in mind, Naruto embarks on a long and harrowing journey. Slightly AU, Naruto!centric, pairing(s) undisclosed.
1. Prologue

**A/N All right, I plan for this story to span out into something large and - hopefully - original. However, I will try to keep a moderate plot pace, a bit faster than what I've seen is usually done on this site. I do have a fondness for details though, so I will also try to weave them in. My main goal is to simply write something epic, and I hope you will enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it.**

**The story is done in the first person view of Naruto, I wanted to try something different.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way.**

The Other Path

Prologue

I quickly recognized who the person knocking on my door was. Three slow knocks, so soft one could hardly hear the raps. Only one person knocked like that. The housekeeper would rather barge in, and others would pound at the door. No, this . . . this could only be the Hokage!

I had the door open in a flash. A white-robed old man stood at my porch.

"Hello Naruto-kun," the old leader's eyes crinkled with merriment.

"Jiji!" The words was barely out before I clamped around the man's waist. I didn't know any better at the time, you see, it's disrespectful to embrace your Hokage. Still, the old man didn't mind in the slightest. I never noticed the concealed ANBU, but they didn't intervene – they knew the Hokage would only be displeased by that.

"Let's go inside Naruto-kun, I have something important to discuss with you today." The Hokage said friendly, and I could see he took great amusement from how I reacted to the word "Important." I nodded rapidly and took the Hokage by his sleeve; Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled and followed me amiably.

The one-room apartment I lived in was a bare place, but I didn't mind that, I thought my home was rather nice. Imagine yourself a place that only has the absolute necessary, and you've managed to picture my flat. Still, material things was not something I measured my home in, I liked it because it was my own. It was better than the orphanage, that's for sure.

Not three seconds after entering the room, I was already firing of questions with a vocabulary that only seemed to confuse the old man. Was it dangerous? Did he need me? When would we leave? The Hokage chuckled good-naturedly at me. It didn't bother me much, grownups sometimes laughed for no apparent reason.

"Now, now, calm down Naruto, you will know soon enough."

I nodded; I knew I was being reprimanded when the old man refrained from adding a suffix to my name.

"Take a seat then, I will make us some tea."

I bobbed my head again and sat down by the kitchen table, the old man filled the silence with talk.

"It's nice to do normal things once in a while, I think. I have not brewed my own tea in years . . . there is a satisfaction in that, you know, in doing things yourself, even mundane things."

At this, I proudly proclaimed to the wizened old man how I made my own ramen by adding hot water to a premade cup. The Hokage hummed in amusement. "Very good Naruto-Kun, although you seem to be short on stock." The old man was referring to the near empty shelf of ramen cups.

"Yes, I buy soon." I told him earnestly. My sentence was short and clipped, as is to be expected from a young boy. The Hokage nodded and carried two cups filled with steaming tea to the table.

"I'm glad you mentioned that, Naruto-kun, I do have some more stipend money for you." He reached into his robes and pulled out a yellowed convolute and laid it next to my teacup.

"Thank you, oji-san." I told him; however, there was a slight frown on my face. It must have shown.

"Something that bothers you?" The Hokage asked with a curious glint in his dark eyes. I looked up, then down at the convolute again, before finally asking: "So soon?"

"Ahh, yes, it has not been quite a month yet has it? Well, this will be the last time you get a stipend. Now don't look so frightened boy! There has been a change in arrangements for you, don't look so glum. This is good news."

"How?" I asked shortly. The Hokage hummed lowly to himself, before taking a sip of the tea. His face writhed in an expression of dislike, maybe some tasks are better given to others. He cleared his throat and began speaking:

"You won't live in the village very much longer Naruto-kun, you'll be in someone else's company, a strong ninja, who'll look after you and make sure that you grow up to be a good man. Of course, you will have plenty of opportunities to come visit, it's not like this is the last time we will see each other." The Hokage interrupted himself with a low chuckle. "This is only for a certain amount of time."

I was not reassured. How could I leave Konoha, my only home? My eyes were moist, and when I spoke, my voice was quivering. "Why? Why leave?"

The Hokage's eyes softened and he stretched a hand over the table to give a comforting squeeze on my shoulder. "It's my fault Naruto-kun; I have not been able to give you as much as I would have wanted to. However, this is to help you, Naruto-kun, you have to believe that. Do you believe me Naruto-kun?"

I nodded shakily, I was convinced. The old man was always kind, I believed him. I used my t-shirt to soak up some of the moist from my eyes, my arms felt unsteady.

"That is good, Naruto-kun, it makes me happy. You'll leave in two days, so be prepared to have what you need then, I imagine you won't have much luggage." The old man's eyes contained that same amusement from earlier. I shoved the convolute over to the Hokage, but a tanned and gnarled hand stopped me. There was power in that hand, I could practically feel it.

"Please Naruto-kun, take it, it's the least I can do. Think of it as travel expenses." The Hokage peered at me with pleading eyes; I quickly relented and felt very self-conscious. We sat together for a few more minutes, quietly drinking our tea. Until I was bitten with a question that worried me. I took a few seconds to properly formulate the question, and then I asked.

"Who will be with me?" The Hokage looked at me over his teacup and smiled. A deep and warm smile.

"Jiraiya of the Sannin."

xXx

I had just finished what would be my last meal at Ichiraku ramen for a great deal of time, and for that reason, I had tried to eat enough to last me until I got back. Even as I hobbled down the road, my tummy feeling as if it would explode, I did not regret. I waved to the two ninja guards at the gate entrance as I passed, they waved back, and it lifted my mood.

Even though I trusted sandaime jiji, I was still very much scared of leaving Konoha. Until recently, the village was my entire world, it was all I knew. Now I felt uncertain, I was afraid of leaving everything, and the unknown world out there frightened me. However, I would still go, even though I didn't understand why, because I trusted the Hokage.

"You look like a kicked puppy, hunching like that, what got in your panties?"

I turned around; and standing there was Jiraiya, the toad sannin. I had taken up on the Hokage's advice on taking a trip to the library to get an understanding of the man. If the stories I had brushed past was true, then by all means, the man was a hero. As in the pictures of him, he had twin streaks of red markings going from his eyes in a straight vertical line to his chin. His hair was white and long, and he was clothed in red and white, with geto sandals on his feet. I also thought the man incredibly tall. I would have thought him intimidating as well, but he had an easy smile, and his eyes were friendly.

"You don't look like much kid, then again, neither did he, I suppose." His voice was deep and powerful. I looked myself down; I wore shorts and a t-shirt, and nothing more apart from my sandals. I also had a backpack on me, in it was food, water, money and a bunch of items that might or might not come in handy.

"Are you ready to go then, Naruto? We can get to know each other on the road; we have all the time in the world! It'll be great fun, just the two of us." For a moment, he seemed like a giddy child, and my already good impression of the man increased. He might even be a friend one day, the thought made me smile. I followed Jiraiya out of Konoha with good spirits.

xXx

The two of us walked past the abundant lush green forests surrounding Konoha, I was watching the scenery with large eyes; I had never been outside of Konoha before, everything past the walls was a new world to me. I would have run off to explore had it not been for Jiraiya, he told me I would have plenty of opportunities to do so later. After two days of walking, I began to tire of the surroundings. They were not as interesting anymore.

I was kept occupied though, with questions, riddles and lots of talk. It was good practice for me; I rarely had anyone to talk with in Konoha, and never to the degree of the conversations I had with the Sannin. Most of the time was idle talk and banter, but Jiraiya would fill in a missing word for me or correct me when I pronounced something wrong.

"But how?" I nagged incessantly.

"Oh it's quite easy, at least to me, but I am the great Jiraiya-sama of course, simple chakra control is nothing to the great Toad sage of Mount Myoboku!" The toad sage exclaimed proudly, wagging his eyebrows. By now, I had realized the man was devoid of any humility.

We had discussed chakra, and Jiraiya had deemed it fit to give a demonstration. Now he was balancing several chopsticks on his fingers, they didn't even so much as waver. I had been quick to try myself, and had promptly demanded to know the secret when I failed. Clucking to himself like a chicken, Jiraiya tried to explain the theory to me in a way I would understand.

"It's impossible, I can't do it." I grumbled and shoved the chopstick back into my pocket. "How long is this going to take anyways, are we there yet?"

The toad sage frowned at the question, I had asked that a dozen times over the trip already. "Don't nag my ears out brat! A great deal of time over the years is going to be spent walking about, It will be part of your life. Get used to it, unless you want to be miserable all the time." The sage told me, then he gave me a long look and his face smoothened. "Of course, there's lots of things to do on the road, I'll keep you busy, trust that."

I became quiet after that, he seemed to be giving good advice.

"Besides, the reason we're going so slow is because your toddler legs are so small." The toad sage added smugly. I leapt to my defense immediately. "My legs not small!"

"_Aren't _small, is the word you'd use there. And don't outright deny stuff like that, sure way to lose your argument, brat!"

"I'm not a brat either!" I puffed out indignantly. Jiraiya laughed heartily.

"Oh, is that so? How old are you then, five years? Six?"

"Five and eight months!" I told him heatedly, but felt an embarrassing red shade latch onto my face. "Where are we going anyways?" I grumbled, mostly to get past the age comment.

"We're going to Takumi village, the capital of river country. It's about a hundred miles from Konoha to Takumi, but still, would have been there by now if it weren't for the extra baggage." The last part he added almost sourly, and Jiraiya threw an exasperated look at me. The toad sage held up a hand to stem the flow of spicy words I was throwing at him, I could tell he was curious as to where I learned them.

"Listen brat; continue playing with that chopstick for now, we'll be in Takumi sometime tomorrow."

However, we quickly discovered that my already slow pace slowed down to a crawl when I began focusing on the chopstick. Jiraiya solved that problem by throwing me up on his shoulders; I imagine I barely weighed a thing to him. That's how the two of us traveled down the road, me sitting on Jiraiya's shoulders. Still trying to make the darn chopstick stay on my forefinger.

Strange how it took me over two years to understand that I was being prepared for something.

That I was being groomed.

That I was trained.

xXx

It took me a while to get used to the life on the road, it was different from living in Konoha, and it was, to my great joy and surprise, a lot more fun. In Konoha I was always bored and looking for things to do, I was always alone, the people there avoided me, tried not to look at me.

Jiraiya looked at me. He was nice too, most of the time.

Over time, I experienced incredibly many things with him. Seeing as the two of us rarely stayed in one place for any more than a month, we ran in to all kinds of people and situations. Once I almost drowned on the outskirts of the southern Taro Island, when pirates gunned down our much smaller vessel. On the eastern edge of the elemental nations, I got caught in a fire at a dusty inn, the inferno was caused accidentally by the innkeeper himself. One time the sannin had left out to do some important wet work. He didn't show up again after that.

I quickly ran out of money and was forced out of the inn I stayed at; I had to live out on the streets in the capital of tea country. I survived there as a beggar and a looter for nearly three weeks before the sage finally tracked me down. When Jiraiya arrived, he looked almost as rugged and foul as I felt. He explained he had run into some "unforeseen" events. I had simply been happy to see him again. This incident would have occurred again, but Jiraiya had the idea to establish an ongoing bank deposit for me, I would always have money that way, even if Jiraiya were hindered somehow. I would also get a visit from large talking toads if Jiraiya suspected things would go badly during his nightly business.

However, most of the time Jiraiya did come back as agreed, and he was rarely injured as far as I could tell. During these absences, I would use the time to accomplish tasks Jiraiya had set for me. I always promised to have them done by the time he came back, and I did for the most part, though sometimes I struggled, particularly on difficult theoretical issues.

Take fuinjutsu for instance. There was a certain logic in the field, but it still confused me more than anything else did. I complained a lot to Jiraiya, even though I knew the art was both useful and rare, and that I was lucky to have someone teach me. Meditation was another thing I just couldn't do; I scratched it of as boring and useless. Reading was something Jiraiya advised me to do in my time of absolute boredom. I even heeded it sometimes. He would drop off some books to me whenever I ran out, the titles would vary a lot, _Rhetoric for beginners,_ _a history of shinobi _and _a study of predators _just to mention a few. I never truly developed a passion for books, but I hated it less and less.

Twice we visited Konoha during my first two years on the road, and I was happy to see the old man again. He listened attentively to me while I told him about my travels and adventures. He was a good audience. I always visited Ichiraku' as well, Teuchi oji-san would win the world's best ramen award anytime. I found it odd how no one had moved in to my one time apartment. It appeared abandoned.

Once I joined Jiraiya when he took a trip to Mount Myoboku, the place was surreal. The mountains seemed to be almost sculpted in their shape. That's just how wonderful the nature there was, hills formed as rose petals, vegetation growing with an artistic imagination. Everything was like taken out of a fantasy realm. I liked the almost artificial beauty of Myoboku, but something about the place put me of as well. During my stay there I was mostly left to my own for two days, I spent them wandering around while talking to the local populace, which happened to be large toads.

Otherwise, I would spend my time exploring the small hamlets and villages we frequented. I talked with a great deal of people; and listened to their stories. I was always astounded when people told me they never wandered far from their farm, it was such a sad idea to me, and I pitied them.

I was an idiot back then.

When I once bruised myself in a friendly fight with another boy, the two of us visited the town's local healer. She didn't use any kind of medical jutsu to patch us up. Instead, she used a collection of herbs, alchemical compounds and tinctures as a way of mending us. I thought it was rather cool, and after that, I visited her nearly every day for the remaining two weeks of our stay there. I helped her with patients and listened as she explained the abilities of differing plants and herbs. I learned a great deal, but I knew I was just scratching the subject. Before we left, I bought two books she owned with some of the money jiji had given me, they came at a good discount too. She was a nice woman.

When we stayed in larger cities, there was a completely different world to explore. I learned much during my numbered days as a street urchin. I always thought back to those few weeks with a frown. I knew the feeling of real hunger. I knew how it was like to live in constant worry. How it was like to sleep on cold streets. How it was like to have guards knock the living lights out of you for begging in the wrong districts.

It was terrible.

However, the world could be like that, the unlucky lived that life every day, and I would never forget it. No wonder I began giving coins to beggars. Still, there is more than beggars in a city, and I was particularly intrigued by some of the people living there. They were a shady sort, pickpockets, smugglers, thieves, dealers and loaners. You name it; I had firsthand experience with all types. Not as much because I attracted the wrong sort, but because I was easily bored, I happened on a great deal of things while wandering in places one should not wander. I had a close brush with death once; I had come up close to a few unsavory types extorting two girls. I had briskly walked over to tell them to back off; and as a result, they nearly killed me. Still, they let the girls go, and I counted that as half a victory.

Shortly after that, Jiraiya began teaching me funny dance moves, or what he proclaimed to be katas. He showed me a few so-called"forms" which I had to learn quickly. Sometimes he brought out puffs and pillows of differing shapes and sizes. He held them while I performed strikes and kicks he told me to use. I was told to stretch before and after a session, it was important he told me. If I kept it up routinely, I would stay nimble, and not grow stiff over the years. It was all very fun, although the stretching part was painful.

Something I did like about the big cities was their libraries, which were usually vast. I opted to visit them when I was bored or when I wanted to broach a certain topic. Jiraiya said it was a good habit. I also liked the very diverse food a large city offered, they had all kinds of things to eat. Although my standards of a meal had been severely reduced after living on discarded food from trashcans for a few weeks, I still loved a good bowl of ramen.

xXx

Everything changed when I turned eight; I was for the first time allowed to join Jiraiya on one of his mysterious escapades. We had done a few training simulations before, which meant the assignments were not real.

This would be real.

For the duration of the mission, my name was Turano, and I was tagging along as an apprentice to the great toad sage. I wondered why I simply couldn't use my own name and history. However, Jiraiya said that would be dangerous, and that he would tell me someday. My alias was given a thorough backstory, a birthplace, parents, siblings, pets, likes, dislikes, goals and so on. The evening before our venture, Jiraiya tried to brush up on things we had been through.

"When you walk behind me don't walk formally, make it seem natural. I want to know where you are behind me, but don't make it seem as if I'm your kage . . ."

"Always use flattery to distract, even bad flattery works, it diverts their attention on to themselves. They don't notice things as easily that way . . ."

"If it goes down the drain, just play your role. The reality of the situation is that you're an 8-year-old kid, there's not much they can do, even if they suspect you . . ."

"Just make yourself as unnoticeable as possible, unless the situation calls for it. Play your role, that's important, if the world's a stage, use it . . ."

The evening next day came far too slow for my taste, but it did come. I followed Jiraiya with equal amounts of fear and excitement, which I had a hard time concealing behind the face of Turano. We were currently walking the streets of Kirigakure, the hidden village of water country. It wasn't a safe place, none of the foreign villages were. I understood that other villages saw it as threatening if a ninja from somewhere else showed up, but why was it dangerous for me? I was no ninja. Jiraiya told me it was another one of those things he would explain to me when I got older.

I aged a lot that day.

I followed Jiraiya through the door of a tavern. We were supposed to meet a contact here. The inn was clean and tidy, a large rectangle shaped room was what we entered, small round tables and chairs were placed around. The place was dimly lit, not dark enough to browse lethal wares in the room, but not light enough to attract the smart kind of folk. The place contained the characteristic seaweed smell of Kirigakure. I eyed the second level balcony and imagined I would have a good view from there. I smiled cheerily to my Master and waved him goodbye before I made my way to the serving man behind a worn and polished desk.

"A glass of milk please." I requested politely. The man grunted and poured me a glass. I pulled out a ryo and offered it for the glass, and then I climbed the stairs and sat down by a table at the edge of the balcony. It was a nice spot too; I could see most of the inn from there. It didn't take me long to spot Jiraiya sitting in a corner, he was conversing with a dark haired woman.

This was supposed to be the safe part of the mission; our contact would share the Intel and possibly point out an opportunity of interest. The possibly more dangerous work would not happen before later. At least, that's how it went down usually, according to Jiraiya. Unfortunately, that's not how it went this time. I am absolutely sure Jiraiya didn't need me; I was there to practice, to observe and get the gist of how the work was done. I didn't understand that at the time, I was so sure I was a vital piece to the success of the mission.

Don't chastise me, I didn't know better then.

I felt relatively safe up on the balcony, throwing nondescript glances down at Jiraiya and the woman. I was trying to pin down her character; I managed to get a poor understanding of her. She was rather mundane when it came to her looks. Her behavior suggested she was of commonwealth. However, her standing as one of Jiraiya's contacts suggested otherwise. She would raise her voice a bit too much on her inflections, she failed to hide a smile or laugh. Her relaxed appearance could have been a mask, but I doubted it. I theorized she had until very recently lived a simple life, and that the sudden new covert life she lived now was unnatural to her. She didn't have anyone to show her the ropes. In other words, she was an amateur in a new field. That would always be dangerous in a profession like this.

However, I didn't realize that _I _was an amateur as well. First of all, it was simply plain wrong of me to think I was safe on that balcony, and you would think I had learned by now that you were never really safe. With Jiraiya only a glance away, I thought nothing could touch me, but it was only so much a Sannin could do in the midst of a foreign hidden village. That didn't cross my mind back then, we were after all, in enemy territory.

It was a soft painful prick in my neck. It took me half a second to understand and another half a second to react. My arm – now suddenly very sluggish – went to my neck and pulled out the senbon needle there. I didn't have to investigate to realize it was coated in a toxin of some sort. My first thought was to get Jiraiya's attention, but when my mouth opened to form his name, only a low slur escaped my mouth. I couldn't speak, and when I tried to stand, I found that my legs were denying my orders. My head was heavy, my lids drooping low.

I was about to fall unconscious, and somewhere in the back of my mind I was reassured. This was some kind of neurotoxin with the express purpose of knocking someone out; it would have hurt a lot more if the poison had lethal intentions. I wondered if my young body would be able to handle the dosage. I tried pounding my hand against the table in a vain attempt to create noise, but even that task was too much. My last conscious action was to lean to my right and out of my chair. I hoped the sound I would make would when I hit the floor would be enough to warn Jiraiya. But I was denied even that, as a couple of hands caught me before I made an impact. Then I was gone.

xXx

I awoke from a state of black unconsciousness to a living nightmare. A hooded man, all dressed in black stood before me, I didn't like him. Neither did I like the table with grossing tools, nor the fact that I was strapped down with manacles. Dried blood splatter covered part of the ceiling, needless to say, I didn't like that either.

"I have questions, you will answer." The man's voice was devoid of anything human.

I tried to draw it out, tried to keep him asking questions, but barely three minutes into our conversation and he was unleashing his tools. I won't go into details, but suffice to say that the next hours were the most painful of my life. The questions I only remember vaguely, but some things still sticks in my mind:

"Why are you here, Namikaze?" _Namikaze? Why is he calling me that?_

"Are you using its chakra?" _What chakra?_

"Is the sannin training you?" _Training me? I'm not . . . I'm just . . ._

He kept asking me the same things; he only varied with the questions a few times. Where is Jiraiya now, where were we staying? What was our mission in Kirigakure? I told him very little of worth, not out of courage, but out of ignorance. I was an 8-year-old boy, and I was asked strange questions I didn't know anything about. True, I wasn't just _any _boy, but still, it was too much for me. There was just one question I didn't give away no matter how much he pressed. No matter how much pain he inflicted, I never told him where Jiraiya and I were supposed to meet up in case the mission went badly. I will always be proud of that. Even though Jiraiya would never be stupid enough to use a likely compromised spot.

To me, everything was just pain, a lull where a question was asked, then more pain. Repeat. It felt like an eternity passed away in that chamber. I had a feeble hope that Jiraiya would come to my rescue, that he would smash in the steel door and go choke the hooded man to death. It was a small hope, and although it didn't happen that way, Jiraiya did come.

In my fragile consciousness, I almost failed to notice how the building began quaking with violent impacts. There was no sound in the chamber, but neither of us needed that to understand that something was happening. I felt relief encompass me, like a warm blanket trying to dull my pain. I glanced at the hooded man and felt the relief slip over to anger. Why would anyone do this?

I was just a scared and wounded boy. It made no sense. With these scars, would I still be able to travel? The thought terrified and enraged me. I saw the man fish up a syringe from his pocket, then he removed a stopper and moved forward. I was seeing red by now, I had never been so mad in my entire life. He was going to put me under again, going to stop me from seeing Jiraiya! The needle found my skin, and the fluids went in. He threw another glance at me. Then he left through the reinforced steel door.

Anger like I had never experienced before flooded through my veins, like poison. It became so pronounced I imagined I could see my own fury float around my body like a red mist. I realized years later that it wasn't a part of my imagination. I didn't even pause to wonder why I was still conscious; I just wanted to get away. The manacles holding me lasted for half a minute maybe, before my rage addled mind managed to tear my wrists free by pure force, and a lot of malicious chakra.

I tore of my leg manacles next, and I promptly approached the steel door. It wasn't closed, but stood cracked open. I pushed it aside and walked on, my previous pain was just a dull memory by now. I have no recollection of how the place looked like; I was in a state of mind where I didn't even have proper thought process. At that time, I just wanted to rip things apart, preferably people. I followed the shouts I heard from a story or two above. I met two men in the stairs. There was no hesitation on either parts. They brandished their kunais and threw; I jumped and pushed myself off the ceiling and right into their faces. I only left a bloody mess on the floor, guts lying about. There was no guilt.

I continued up the stairs, the shouts ahead urged me on. New and awakened instincts told me crouch and hunt my prey, and i obeyed without a thought. I made it to the top and several figures entered my line of sight. I charged ahead recklessly. One died before the others were able to react at all, they threw their weapons at me. It stung, and i roared back at them. With incredible speed I ran into them. With my claws I lacerated the one closest to me, before I jumped to the wall and used it to kick off at abnormal speed. Within moments, my prey was reduced to a few mangled corpses.

Only a few seconds after I left those men, I felt myself grow weaker, less angry. By the time I had turned another corner, I was suddenly empty. Empty of energy, of pain, of anger. I stumbled and regained my footing. Then I fell face first into the hard floor.

I didn't lose my consciousness immediately. I just laid there, listening to my heart calm itself, feeling blood dribbling down my nose. It took me a while to realize it was quiet. No more sounds of fighting. Then I heard footsteps. A pair of geto sandals stopped in front of my face. They looked as if the owner had waded through blood.

_Jiraiya . . ._


	2. The will is born

**A/N Hello again, while I was more or less satisfied with the previous chapter – I might have rushed the ending a bit. Plotwise, this story is going to progress fast for the first chapters of the story, I won't slow down before Naruto turns 12, which is around chapter 7-ish. At the same time I don't want to overly rush things, so I've adapted a fast pace for now, but it _will_ slow down once we're past Naruto's early youth. That's all I wanted to say. Enjoy!**

The Other Path

The will is born

The sewer was as real as it could get. There were pipes leading water, and small copper tubes leading heat. The smell was disgusting, and reminded me of life on the streets. The greenish water at my feet felt real, and the slow monotony of dripping water sounded real.

But it couldn't be.

The last moments of consciousness I remembered was a hazy fog of pain, fury and exhaustion. Now here I was, suddenly just standing in a sewer. My worn leather clothes perfectly clean and tidy, my body had no sign of injury, and I felt perfectly rested. It was inexplicable.

It made me wary.

I began wading through the ankle deep murky water; there was nothing else to do. I noted that the tunnels had no visible exit, no manhole covers. My tension increased by each step. Then, after a minute or two of walking, something changed. It wasn't a tangible or concrete thing. It was the atmosphere. A definite desire to cause harm lay in the air. I started to become afraid, the very air I was breathing seemed to become thicker. Then the sewer took a turn and opened up to a room so large I couldn't see the end of it. Although that may have been the darkness clinging there. What I _did _see, however, was the enormous steel pillars standing on a row in front of me.

A moment later, the greatest living creature I had ever seen made itself known to me. It stalked proudly from the shadows and stopped short of what could only be its prison bars. A prison for a giant. It was a fox, enlarged a hundred times or so. Then I spotted the little detail that completely threw me off. It had nine tails.

I fell on my ass.

For a very long time, we just stared at one another. Large intelligent, predatory eyes meeting my own blue. Then it huffed, as if insulted, before it majestically retreated to the shadows.

I was still for a long time.

xXx

This time, I was definitely awake for real. My body hurt, although it was minimal. That confused me. _This isn't so bad._ I actually felt oddly good - considering the situation. I stopped my thoughts just then, someone was speaking.

" . . . told everything, he'll know." It was Jiraiya.

"Good. Its better this way, he is old enough to know now. Not by years perhaps, but his hardships more than make up for it." This was the Hokage. There was a lull in the conversation, and then Jiraiya asked a question, he was a bit hesitant about it.

"So, what did Inoichi find?" Another pause.

"It was bad," the Hokage's voice sounded weary now, and Naruto heard the creaking of a chair. "Four hours of extensive torture and questioning. He would have lost a great deal of muscle use, but . . ." The Hokage trailed off, it gave me the impression that they both knew something I didn't.

"He never gave you up though, he was asked about you over and over, but he refused." The weariness was less pronounced now; a hint of pride had taken its place instead.

That's the first time I've experienced Jiraiya without anything to say. He was quiet. Then he ruined it by murmuring something that sounded like "Knew he had guts."

I decided to wake up at that moment. My eyes fluttered open, but everything was too bright. I used a hand to rub them, and when I opened them again I realized I was hospitalized, and I idly wondered how Jiraiya had gotten me all the way from Kirigakure to Konoha during my unconsciousness. Then the answer was glaring at me, toad summoning of course. He used it to travel to Konoha all the time. There was a well in Mount Myoboku that connected it to Konoha; smaller toads could use it to travel back and forth between the two places. That still didn't explain just what went wrong with the op we had, I still didn't know whom had gotten me. Therefore, my first question was.

"What happened?"

"No, Naruto. We will not discuss your mission today. Today you will rest; we will reveal everything to you as soon as you are able to leave." I didn't agree with the statement, but I found it difficult to convince the Hokage. I let the subject be, but inside me was a raging storm of questions and frustrations, mostly directed at myself.

The two of them were great company, I, however, was not. I was depressed, I was angry, I was scared . . . They left after a while; probably thinking I needed some time alone, they weren't half-wrong.

I was told I had been asleep for two days, and I quickly discovered that my body had been healed perfectly during that time. I had asked about it, but apparently the question went under the _will be explained later _file. I had been given one mandatory day to relax and get myself together; I resigned myself to hold on to the questions until tomorrow.

The day did eventually arrive, and I quickly whisked myself over to the Hokage tower. Even though it was 7:48 in the morning, I didn't care too much if I was being rude. To my surprise, I found both Jiraiya and the old man talking in his office; it would seem they were expecting me. I was being obvious I suppose, but I wanted my answers, and, boy, did I get them.

First Jiraiya told me what happened after he realized I was gone; it was the senbon needle the kiri shinobi had left behind that immediately confirmed I was kidnapped. He had learned his contact had been shadowed recently, firsthand knowledge from the contact herself. She had evidently done a poor job of sneaking away yesterday, the kiri shinobi watching her must have seen Jiraiya and I enter the inn together. Then he stopped his explanation altogether, his face grim. I urged him on.

"Boy, you're the son of the yondaime Hokage. That's why they took you." He said it almost casually. "We'll explain how, now listen" and I did, for more than an hour straight I did nothing but listen.

I was the son of the fourth Hokage. I was born on the same night the Kyuubi attacked Konoha. My father did defeat the demon, but only by sealing it inside me. The repercussions of summoning the Shinigami was death, and dragged down with him into the death god's stomach was the Yin portion of the Kyuubi's own chakra. My mother died in the attack too, she died protecting me.

I didn't know what to think of it, what to feel. It was such a ridiculous idea. Never had I even imagined the fourth Hokage to be my father, not even in my wildest dreams. He died for the village, and he did it by sealing a demon inside me, his only son. What did that vision of the Kyuubi mean then, would I . . . would I have to face the demon again?

That thought terrified me.

The Kyuubi did have a sliver of control over me; I barely remember anything from when I escaped my torture chamber, I had been under his influence then, I think I fought someone . . . but I'm not sure.

"But, how did they _know _it was me, how did they know I was his son? And they asked about the Kyuubi, they . . . they wanted to know if I was using its chakra."

"It was my mistake," the sage paused for a moment. "Everyone who's seen a picture of the yondaime would easily be able to connect him to you, and when I say just about every shinobi out there has seen a picture of him, I really mean everybody. Whether it's from a wanted poster or a history book." He stopped talking and a long and weary sigh escaped his mouth.

"I was foolish, we'd been in foreign villages before, this wasn't too different. The job was easy too, but I guess we got unlucky." He turned his melancholic eyes down to my stomach. "As for the Kyuubi, I'm sure they were able to notice it quickly once they got you. Maybe they had a chakra sensor investigate you, or perhaps they were able to draw some lines and from there forced some chakra into you to activate the seal. It doesn't really matter."

I sat still, I suddenly felt very drained. However, something still bothered me about his explanation. "In that case, why hasn't more people recognized me before? I get that mostly shinobi would know my dad's appearance, but what about Konoha? Why don't people see-"

"Because, they _don't_ see you." It was the sandaime's old chiseled voice; he was looking out over the village of Konoha. "They don't _want_ to see you, Naruto-kun. And when they do look at you they do it with ill-conceived contempt, they have little room for recognition." He pulled his gazed away from the window and gave me a tired smile.

"However, pull on your fathers old Hokage robes, and I dare say not a single person in this village will think you an orphan."

I nodded dumbly, still not really feeling much of anything. I didn't know if this was all good or bad, if I was content with things. In the end, I wasn't able to force myself to care. If the world was announced to end that day, I don't even think I would have bothered enough to ask for a reason.

Maybe . . . maybe I needed some time alone, some time to sort out the mess in my head. But first. "How did you know where to find me?"

Jiraiya was confused at first, we had left that topic a long time ago, then he caught up to my though process. "Oh," he said and flashed me a feral grin. "That was the easy part, brat, I asked my contact where they kept their captives in Kirigakure, that kind of information isn't classified."

"Then what, you smashed yourself though the walls until you found me?" I asked incredulously, how the heck had we gotten out of there? One didn't just cause a stir in one of the hidden villages and survived to tell the tale, much less one of the big five, it was impossible!

"Oh I went in quiet at first, I _am _a spymaster you know, but when things got rough I didn't exactly hold back, sage mode is a wonderful thing!" He told me with a smile. That's the first time I really understood how an incredibly powerful ninja Jiraiya really was. I had of course heard the stories, how he and the other sannin had trumped just about anything during the third shinobi war. Still, I looked at Jiraiya with new eyes from that day onward. A man who singlehandedly went balls deep into hidden villages and tangled with scores of their own shinobi to pick up a little boy. He was crazy, and . . . I suppose I loved him for that.

"There will be consequences." The Hokage's voice was quiet. I felt no small amount of guilt wallow up in me, in the end it was largely my fault. At least, in my own mind.

"How did you get us out of there, reverse summoning?" I asked tiredly, all of this had been very taxing on me.

"Right in one!" He told me proudly. At least that explained how we had gotten out. I left shortly after that, I could sense that they were worried about me, and I did try to reassure them as best I could before I left. The first thing I did afterwards was to seek out a hotel where I could rent a room and have a meal. I went to a place I knew, they had a bathhouse and I figured I could enjoy that right about now. I ate first, my motions were mechanical, scoop up egg, chew, swallow, repeat. A floor-carpet might have tasted better.

It wasn't before my body hit the steaming hot water that I actually began thinking on today's revelations. Once I did, though, everything fit together snuggly. The villagers had ignored me out of trepidation; they knew I had the Kyuubi sealed inside me. The children my age didn't know, at least they shouldn't if their parents held true to the law the old man had passed. The Kyuubi's malignant chakra was what had healed my body, I traced a finger over my arms and found it odd how the skin there was unmarred. I knew now why I had been sent off with Jiraiya.

They did it to protect me. They did it to make me a ninja.

Two and a half year I'd been on the road with Jiraiya, and that still came as a surprise to me. All the days spent throwing weapons, all the time used to explain chakra, the hours spent following katas. Jiraiya had been training me to be a ninja, and I had never been the wiser.

I thought he was showing me those things more to cure my ignorance than anything. I thought he began drilling me in katas because I always ended up in a fight. I had not even been to the academy, as I had once wanted, where scores of kids were instructed by mediocre chunin. Instead, I had been sent off travelling with a freaking sannin. It was startlingly obvious to me now, but I had resigned myself to be a journeyman, maybe I would be able to pick up some useful skills, but that was it. It was a farfetched dream to become a Konoha ninja when I wasn't even living in Konoha. That's how I had reasoned.

Me, a shinobi? Yesterday I would have been hopeful if someone hinted at the idea, today I snorted. Of course I would be a shinobi! Both my parents had been magnificent ninjas, I wasn't about to trump a family trait. I thought about the four stone faces on the mountain wall in Konoha. I did look a lot like my father . . . but was I as good as he was?

Then I had an epiphany that would change my life. A realization of sorts.

I was weak.

Despite Jiraiya's not so subtle help and training, I was a disappointment. Sure, I could walk on walls, but that didn't help me during the ambush in Kirigakure. If I had devoted more time to training . . . In my mind a lot of that missions failure laid at my feet, it was my incompetence, my idiocy. I didn't care what they told me, I had been a burden.

I vowed to myself, right there and then, that I would never be a burden again. I fisted my right hand, and my eyes scrunched up in determination. _I'll change! I'll get stronger. I won't be a victim again._ No one would have the chance to torture me. I would . . . I would kill them first.

I rose from the water. A busy schedule was already forming in my mind.

xXx

Jiraiya found me at the springs two days after, or, more as if he just happened on me while peeking at the girls. The man was terribly fascinated by the opposite sex. He informed me we would stay in Konoha for a few more days. I caught the underlying message; he didn't want to stress me by travelling. I shrugged and told him that was fine. Then I told him about my thoughts.

"I'm going to become stronger." My face was serious. Jiraiya pulled his eye away from the peeking hole in the fence, he looked befuddled.

"Uh, what?"

"I'm going to begin training for real, I'm your apprentice right? I'm telling you that from now on, my sole attention will be focused on training."

Jiraiya smiled. "Sure thing, brat. Give it all you've got."

He didn't take me seriously. "Give me something to do then, there's only so many times I can throw shuriken and go through my katas." I told him, but was annoyed when he moved to peek through the hole again. "I can walk on water now."

He jerked his head towards me, now he was surprised.

"You've completed the water walking exercise?" He asked aghast. I nodded. It had taken a lot of the previous night to accomplish it. I needed the water to be calm in order to have a chance, and the other guests had made that a problem.

"That's far ahead of schedule . . ." he muttered to himself.

"I told you, I'm not going at that pace anymore. I'm determined now, to be better." I told him seriously. Jiraiya gave me a dumbfounded look.

"Brat, you're already well on your way, if you increase the pace now you'll run yourself ragged."

I blinked, that was an unexpected reply. I felt he was being honest with me but . . . It didn't change anything. I was unhappy with my progress, and I was going to change it.

"Still, I feel I can do a lot more." I told him earnestly. He didn't reply for a while, he looked thoughtful. That alone was unusual for Jiraiya.

"Allright then, if you think you can handle it, knock yourself out. You want a new challenge? Fine, now listen . . ."

He gave me jutsu to complete. Three of them in fact. He explained them to me in detail and told me a few helpful tips that might make it easier on me. I left him to his peeping and went to the Konoha archive to get some extra information on the jutsu I was learning. As Jiraiya's apprentice, I had access. The hand signs were simple, the chakra requirement was minimal, and control wasn't that important.

I could do two out of three at the end of the day. The bunshin technique evaded me. I told Jiraiya as much the next day, he was surprised I had been able to get a decent grasp of the substitution and transformation techniques, but the bunshin came as no surprise to him.

"Your chakra reservoir is too large; you can't do the bunshin until your chakra control is good enough. Which won't happen for years."

I begged to differ.

"Let's skip it for now then, give me something else." I told him, eager to get on with my training. He gave me a strange look just then; I could see I was starting to convince him I was serious. The next thing he gave me was by comparison to yesterday an impossible task, I leapt at the challenge of course. Toad summoning looked awesome! I quickly signed the contract and performed the seals.

I was frustrated when I wasn't able to do the technique the first day, I was sad when the only thing I managed to get the second day was tadpoles. I became downright angry when on the third day, the only toads I could summon was as large as an open palm. Jiraiya explained that although I had enough chakra, my control was shot. It was the bunshin all over again, just on a different scale.

I think this was Jiraiya's way of telling me that progress didn't come in leap and bounds, I had to take my training at a leisurely pace and trust his guidance. Of course, I wouldn't have any of that. It's difficult to explain, but I felt as if I was fighting the clock. I felt I had to improve, and that I had to do it right _now. _

I began working on my chakra control. Water walking was all-good. Doing it while balancing a chopstick with chakra on each hand was not _that_ good. I reasoned if I could get the control to do it, I might be able to do the summoning technique. The problem was that it was two different ways to use chakra.

To stand on water you had to radiate a stream of chakra from your feet, what's worse, you had to constantly change the amount of chakra used to accumulate for the flowing nature of water. On the other hand, to keep something balanced by the use of chakra you had to suck it towards your body with suction, it was two different things. I hadn't enough control to do both at the same time, not yet. Therefore, I went to the large lake right by Konoha to practice, or sometimes to the bathhouse at my hotel. However, there were people to distract me there, once a bunch of kids my age appeared. They stared a lot, and although I didn't dislike the attention, it still ruined my focus from time to time.

I experienced improvement, but I wasn't sufficient at it yet. Then, on my fifth day after waking up at the Konoha hospital, I saw a boy who caught my attention. I had just been eating a few bowls of ramen at Ichiraku's and was heading back to the hotel when I spotted him, or rather, I noticed the fiery creation he was spitting out across the lake he was standing by. _A fireball jutsu? _

I instantly changed my direction and headed for the boy.

He was my age, we looked equally tall, but that seemed to be our only similarity. He had black hair and eyes whereas I had blond hair and blue eyes. He wore loose black and blue clothes. To contrast him I was dressed in a bright white t-shirt and loose green pants. He turned to watch me walk down the grassy field towards him, his face impassive.

"Hi." I said when I got closer, and raised a hand as a way of greeting him. He considered me for a moment, and then he made a grunt before turning to walk away. I've been brushed off like this before, but never by a boy. I wanted to test myself against him, but he, apparently, was too good for me. I had to change his mind then, which would be easy enough. I recognized his type.

"I bet you want to be stronger right?" I asked casually. He stopped, the bait was laid.

"I want the same thing, I saw your jutsu, and I thought you might be a good match." I continued in the same tone. He didn't turn to face me, but he replied with: "Taijutsu only."

I considered it for only a moment. "Agreed."

Then he came, and he came _fast. _He made other kids I've brawled with look like toddlers. Then again, this wasn't a brawl. He closed the gap between us with a leap kick, I raised my arms in front of my face in a cross guard and felt the power of the kick reverberate through my arms. I used his aggressive engage against him by closing my hands around his right ankle while he was still in midair and attempted to slam his body into the grass.

However, he showed great reflexes and body control for someone that young. Instead of flopping into the grass as I half expected him to, he managed to catch the ground with his hands and tried to pull his legs after him. I didn't allow that, I used my grip on his leg to throw him up in the air again, where he would be at my mercy. However, I was forced to release his leg and hold up my left arm in order to stop a kick from his other leg. He landed on all four again and quickly backed up so I couldn't go in for a counter.

I grit my teeth and gave him a dirty look; I'd had the advantage in that engage, but through skills alone, he had managed to come out unscathed. He used the momentum I gave him to his advantage and managed to throw a kick at me in mid-air. _Are all academy students here this good? No point in fooling around then._

I attacked this time, and I did so with a ferocious vigor, but I couldn't for the life of me get through his guard. I flicked a backhand towards his face while at the same time I aimed a kick at his legs. When that failed, I immediately followed up with another combo, and another one. Nothing got through. I could tell he was struggling with my relentless onslaught, but he was holding up. Then I overextended my body after I narrowly missed a kick meant for his torso. Unfortunately, he was good enough to capitalize on my amateurish mistake.

He came in with a strong haymaker that made my blocking arms feel like jelly. I knew he would try to follow up with something aimed for my lower regions, so I tried to angle my body so he couldn't reach them easily. I succeeded in that. Now he just went for my face instead. Two quick fists in succession, I was glad he had the decency to hold back. I backtracked and felt dazed by the two shots to my face. Of course, he didn't just let me walk away.

Once again, he came in, this time with a glaringly obvious punch, the definition of misdirection. His real attack showed to be a high elbow strike meant for my jaw, even though my eyesight was a bit off, I managed to get a firm grip around his wrist. I almost triumphed there and then. The human body has incredibly many pressure points, weak spots, joints, nerves and muscles someone knowledgeable enough can use to his advantage. Its common knowledge in taijutsu that if you allow your opponent a good grip on one of your limbs - and in extension, easy access to your weak spots -, then you're in deep shit.

Grinning at the sudden look of trepidation that entered the boy's dark eyes, I used my available right hand to twist his elbow joint up awkwardly. Then I pulled down with my left hand, and forced him roughly to the ground. In my excitement, I forgot to be wary, and somehow the darn kid managed to get his leg behind mine during the fall. As a result, I fell with him and he managed to twist out of my grip and bounce back up.

I growled angrily and quickly rolled to my feet and turned to face him as fast I could. Only to get a foot shoved firmly into my solar plexus. I fell to the ground again and I couldn't breathe for several long seconds. When air first came down my throat, it did so in small torturous gulps. I heard the boy utter a silent apology, but otherwise he remained silent. Slowly, ever so slowly, I made myself stand. I wanted a rematch. I wanted another spar with this guy. However, I was both insulted and disappointed when I saw he was nowhere to be seen. The weather felt colder all of a sudden.

I spent the rest of the day improving my chakra control at the same lake, if I had been unsure whether what I was doing was necessary or not. Then the fight today had cemented my will. I had to get stronger. To be worthy of the ninja title. To be worthy of Jiraiya's tutelage. To be strong enough to fight back. To be my parents legacy. I wouldn't let anyone down, not anymore.

The spar also made me reflect on how little I've been doing just that; sparring. I'd brawled a lot with other kids my age, and after a year or so on the road Jiraiya had taken to teach me katas and different forms. Oh, I'd been sparring with Jiraiya, but that consisted of me punching and kicking at him, while he just blocked everything I did. He would give me an occasional tap or slap when I ruined my pose, but otherwise I was uninjured after those sessions. This spar had been quite a different thing; my arms were bruised, not to mention my sore face and aching torso.

I did improve in my control training though; it was as if someone had switched a switch. One moment I was struggling to keep my balance for more than a few seconds and then suddenly I kept it going for almost a minute at a time, chopsticks barely wavering. I became so excited I continued training and didn't leave for the hotel until after midnight. I was tired then, but very satisfied. _Soon . . ._

xXx

"We're leaving tomorrow." Jiraiya informed me, "it took a while longer than expected, but tomorrow we'll hit the road again."

We both knew what had kept him busy. "Pervert." I muttered sourly.

"_Super _pervert!" he corrected me angrily, we had been over this a lot. I shrugged and stepped over a large tree root. We were in the forested regions around Konoha, and we were there to get some distance from civilians and prying eyes.

"Anyways, congratulations!" He told me all of a sudden, and stopped to strike a pose I recognized "You've been officially apprenticed to the gallant Jiraiya-Sama! The great toad sage of Mount Myoboku, the man who makes woman knee-weak and men burn with admiration!"

"Official, what's the difference?" I asked him and kept walking, I would have rolled my eyes at his display, but my respect for him was enough to stop me.

"Humph, of course it means you'll go into the history books as one of the great Jiraiya-Sama's students!" He told me smugly, and then he became more serious. "You get some quirks, the village officially recognizes you as a fellow ninja in training, and you get the same privileges any genin has."

"Is it the same as making genin then?" I asked curiously, and brushed a few low hanging branches out of my face.

"No, it isn't." His voice rang out from behind me. "Genin has examinations, you don't. However, you still have the same standing, so to speak. Apprenticeships are only given to people with great potential; the Hokage can't hand out jonin's to small runts like you freely. He expects to get paid back in a few years with a really strong ninja coming out of this."

I nodded to his explanation. So, I was like a long-term investment, well, I would definitely make it worth their time. My smile just then must have been very out of place on an 8-year-old.

"I think this is far enough," I told Jiraiya and gave the open area an appreciative glance. I needed space for this. I paused a moment to gather my thoughts, to prepare for the challenge. This was difficult, and I wanted to do it on my first attempt in front of my newly official sensei.

"Kuchiyose No Jutsu!"

Just like during my practice yesterday, a large blanket of smoke erupted and covered the clearing. I knew I had succeeded though, you see, I was several dozen feet taller all of a sudden.

"Hey there, Gamahiro!" I greeted him friendly and waved my arms from my standing point on his head.

"**Oi! Naruto, I see you managed to summon me today as well. Be careful up there!" **The turquoise toad shifted on his webbed feet before his eyes landed on Jiraiya, who stood in the shadow of the forest. **"Hey there, Jiraiya-san."**

I grinned proudly and took immense pleasure in seeing Jiraiya's gob smacked face.

"So, sensei, what's next then?" I tried to ask casually, but even I could hear my ill-contained smugness. My pose was one of mock arrogance; I brushed my nails against my T-shirt just for extra effect.

Jiraiya laughed then. Not just a small chuckle, but a full-blown roaring laughter that lasted so long he was left wheezing at the end of it. I joined in halfway, simply because his face looked so darn funny scrunched up like that. Gamahiro seemed confused.

"Oh, kid, you sure are something."

"I aim to be!" I told him confidently, very happy about his praise. He straightened up and took a large breath.

"Fine then. By the time we leave tomorrow I want you to have read the next two chapters of your fuinjutsu study; we'll discuss it on the road. We'll leave early tomorrow, so pack up today, now there's the issue of clothing . . ." Briefly after that, we said our goodbyes to Gamahiro and left for the village again, Jiraiya wanted to get me some clothes meant for shinobi.

As a traveler, I've mostly worn sturdy clothes on the road for the last two years; I've used leather particularly much. Its quality clothing that lasts long. I've only used everyday clothing when staying in villages, I find them more comfortable. However, when I made my way back to my hotel that day, I was carrying bags with all kinds of different clothing. Most of it designed for shinobi. The stuff had been incredibly overpriced in my opinion, but Jiraiya explained that it was because there are few shinobi at my age in Konoha these days. It makes shinobi clothing for my size expensive.

A year ago, that would have been different, but one Uchia Itachi killed his entire clan one night. It was argued that it was because of his premature entrance into the shinobi world that made him snap. Therefore, child ninja's wasn't something used anymore. No more ninjas my age meant expensive price tags. I was lucky the man still had some on stock.

Neither Jiraiya nor I mentioned the obvious. I was a young ninja in training. Would I go berserk like Itachi one day?

As arranged, we left the next day. I was up early and stopped by the old man's office to say goodbye. I couldn't help but to brag about how I'd managed to do the summoning jutsu in front of Jiraiya, the old man seemed both delighted and surprised at that. Shortly after that, we left, and I realized for the first time I didn't really have any connections to Konoha other than my lineage and my love for the old man and Jiraiya. My only other friends were Ayame and Teuchi.

Wherever I would go in the elemental nations, I was always quick to explore and meet people, but never in Konoha.

As to why, the reason was obvious.

I nodded to my new sensei and old father figure while he told me he would teach me a different version of the bunshin. A forbidden one, because of the large dangers involved, but he believed I could handle it since my chakra capacity was through the roof. As we walked out of Konoha, I couldn't help but throw one last look behind me; my father's stone face was watching my back. It was oddly comforting.

I didn't know it yet, but it would be four whole years before I returned.


	3. A day on the road

**A/N Hey again, I've gotten back to the story now, I disappeared for a month or so, sorry. The blame lies with the season, exams have been a bother, but I'm all done with that now, and I can focus my free time on something that isn't studies. So, here is the next chapter! I'm aware that it's a short one, but it's necessary, and I felt the ending was natural. **

**Either way, enjoy!**

The Other Path

A day on the road

"You're lifting with your back again."

I grunted, and with a certain force of will, straightened my back. I was doing push-ups, and I was starting to reach the point where my arms felt like they contained liquid, _boiling _iron. Still, I kept up the pace. Jiraiya-sensei was lifting a thin stick up and down in front of me. I had to keep up with it, otherwise he would do something mean, like flick the stick in my face.

"So, where were we?" The toad sage mused aloud. It was a late winter morning, the sun was shining above us, yet the air was cool, something for which I was grateful. We were once again travelling, and at the moment we were camped on the southeastern border of fire country. The area was thick with trees, as most of fire country was, but it was especially true for its eastern coastline. It's been a month and a half since we left Konoha, and I had filled most of that time with training. Ergo, my current situation.

"Ahh, right, _bloodlines. _You remembered correct, they pass on through birth, but if a person develops a bloodline that neither of his parents had, then that doesn't mean _he _developed it. In that case, it's more likely that it was something his grandparents had. Bloodlines have been known to skip a generation or two. A good example is the Uchia clan, some of them developed the sharingan, and some never did."

I couldn't even nod in an affirmative, I had enough with just keeping up the pace, I would burn out in a few seconds. He lowered the stick, and then he brought it painfully slow up. Something in my arms just stopped working, and I thumped to the grass.

"Stretch out." He told me. I rose slowly; before I did as instructed and tenderly hooked my right arm around my left. My warm muscles barely felt any strain when I applied pressure. I switched arm and repeated the process once more, then I lowered myself to ground level again. I began doing more push-ups. Jiraiya, crouching in front of me, continued directing the pace with the stick he held.

"Moving on, tell me about the snake sign." Jiraiya said off-handedly, as if we were talking at a café. I blinked. _Hand signs? _

"It's uh, you weave your fingers together, uh, left thumb on the outside." I told him. It sounded bad even through my weariness. What can I say, easy to remember when _doing _them, but trying to describe them? I wasn't used to that. "Lots of snake signs in earth jutsu's." I added, more as an afterthought. Jiraiya's eyes showed approval.

"Tiger then."

"Pointer fingers up. Curve on the other ones. Both thumbs straight up. Used in fire jutsu's." I had to take several brakes to breathe throughout the sentence.

"Ram."

"Pointer and ringer up . . . Left thumb on top . . . argh . . . slight curve on the other fingers."

"Good, take a break." I slumped to the ground and heaved in air like a dry fish on land. "The ram sign, for the record, is good when you need to gather and mold chakra."

I rolled onto my back and gave an absentminded grunt in reply. I massaged my arms. They had that odd feeling, as if the muscles would burst out of my skin in any moment. Jiraiya didn't give me much time to rest. Three minutes maybe, then he was telling me to get up. I did so without complaint.

"What," - I felt two strong arms clamp down around my wrists - "do you do now?" Jiraiya asked in his teaching voice. He wanted me to break out of his hold, I knew because we had done this several times before. I knew several good patterns that could be of use, especially with our arms crossed like this.

Gathering my strength, I spun my arms around in a clockwise motion that gave me access to his wrists, and forced him into a bad position. I grabbed both his wrists and forced his now oddly crossed arms down. However, Jiraiya decided to be a jerk, and simply stopped moving. A near impossible feat considering my dominant position, but of course, I was _eight. _While he was a freaking sage, he was simply displaying his strength, making it challenging.

I gritted my teeth and improvised. I pulled his arms up in the exact opposite direction from earlier; it made him lean more of his weight on his right foot. In other words, he was imbalanced. I struck at his left foot with a hard kick and immediately followed up with a strong strike into his abdomen. I wanted him _down! _My palmed strike made him stumble back two steps, but nothing else.

"Argh! You're too heavy! No fair!" I shouted angrily, and pointed at him accusingly.

"Oh? Me? Heavy?" He chuckled at me, but simply walked back up and slowly reached for my arm. I bashed it aside. A slight quirk of his mouth was my only warning.

The following spar was short and painful. I had asked Jiraiya to be serious against me, or at least fight back and make it difficult for me. I could now relate to the saying 'be careful what you wish for'. It's difficult to explain, but he always fights me in a way that forces me to use everything I have just to stay in the fight. I imagine it's very calculating of him, he deliberately and continuously push me to my limits in every fight. He knows exactly how much force he needs to use in order to get the result he desires. When I manage to block something without exerting everything I have, I can be sure he will hit harder next time.

It's rough training, but by next morning I know my bruises will be gone. That's what makes it at all possible, brutal as it was. That's how we sparred, with my focus on defense during our short fights; I had no opportunity to attack him. Heck, I didn't even have any time to _consider _attacking him. According to Jiraiya-sensei that was just fine, in fact he told me my attack patterns are pretty good, I have to work on my defense apparently.

As the hours spent fighting my teacher increased I naturally became stronger and faster, but I also began to improve in more subtle ways. With all the accumulated experience, I started to get a feel of Jiraiya's style. Sometimes I could predict when he was feinting, or when he was about to hit _really _hard. I could often tell when he was baiting me, or luring me into a trap. I began to understand when it was best to go semi-offensive for a moment, or when to go full turtle. The flow in our spars was beginning to become visible to me. That's how Jiraiya described it anyways.

"Okay, that's good for now. Take a break."

I nodded powerlessly and fell back against a close tree trunk. I slid to the ground and groaned when a flying bottle thumped into my lap. Still, I was grateful for the water and I gulped it down. I leaned my head back against the trunk and closed my eyes, feeling satisfied with the day's training and my progress in general. I was making headway . . .

Before long, I could hear Jiraiya rummaging a few paces away. I sighed, we would be back on the road again soon. I rose to my feet and stretched properly, before I helped Jiraiya clearing out our small campsite. I rolled down my sleeping bag, pulled down my tent and stomped out the last embers from our bonfire before I helped Jiraiya rinse some of our cooking utensils. It took around 10 minutes.

Then with the equipment in our backpacks, we left. On the road, an entirely different phase of my training began. A more theoretical one.

"And if you multiply that with seven?"

I used a short moment to calculate, my eyes stared blankly at the pale blue horizon while my mind pondered.

"351?" I eventually asked.

"Divide that again with 9." Jiraiya told me. I hated deviation. I began juggling the numbers, but close to the end of my equation, I jumbled the numbers together and I lost my train of thought.

"Forty something." I told him monotonously.

"39, to be exact." He corrected me smugly. I sighed and his smile grew broader.

The severely underrated mathematics skill was just one of several everyday abilities we worked on. Sometimes we would dapple in history, where Jiraiya would usually have me recite things from memory. It often revolved around Konoha and its wars and leaders, but I did have a basic understanding of the other elemental nations and their standings as well.

History once again taught me how unfair the world could be. The strongest nations had a strong monopoly on shinobi forces, favors, influence and money. The weakest countries had no real way of protecting their interests, and in wartime, themselves. Moreover, war is no distant thing. Its true shinobi prefer to fight from the shadows, that enemy villages attack one another with conceiting words and hidden blades. However, shinobi villages do go to war, _that_ particular fact has been proven repeatedly.

Some days we would talk about fuinjutsu, usually about things I didn't understand. Jiraiya explained it to me, but I required a demonstration more often than not for it to sink in. Throughout the days, we would still periodically joke and poke fun at each other's behalf, as we used to do before. Albeit Jiraiya did most of it, I was rarely that jokingly anymore. Still, he managed to pull a smile or a laugh from me every now and then.

Chakra related theories and practices is what took up most of my time, the subject was just . . . immense. I immersed myself in it, with Jiraiya's guidance I was slowly but steadily beginning to understand the nature of chakra. Every living being produce it to some degree, and it's also necessary in a great many shinobi arts. Like ninjutsu, genjutsu, fuinjutsu and to some degree even taijutsu, as you can strengthen your body with chakra.

With such a large subject there was always more to learn. Just the previous day I learned how our chakra is separated into two major elements, namely physical and spiritual chakra. In order to increase your physical properties you have to train your body, more specifically; your endurance. The spiritual chakra however, is increased by studying, personal experience and - god forbid - meditation.

It set things in perspective for me, now I knew why Jiraiya has me meditating from time to time. If I ever have the need to increase my already exceptionally large chakra reservoir, I now had an inkling of how to do it. _Reading _could actually increase my chakra, that alien thought baffled me for a while. It was odd how books just kept becoming more and more positive. Even a miniscule increase in chakra would always be welcome, unless my reserves became uncontrollable. I would never let that happen of course!

Still, it felt like I was only now beginning to scratch at the mysteries of chakra.

As per usual, we stopped walking and made camp when darkness fell. I pulled of my backpack and rummaged after the tent poles, as I set up my tent, I fell into a rhythm built from years of habit. In no time, we had our two dark tents back up. My shinobi equipment, discarded for the sake of comfort, lay a few feet away from a small crackling bonfire. Jiraiya was in front of the fire, watching our stew boil. I sat on the opposite side, a fairly complex study on human anatomy in my hands, illuminated by the flickering flames.

"Run into the Kyuubi yet?"

I looked up. Jiraiya was lazily gazing at our bubbling dinner with a faraway look.

_The Kyuubi. _I repeated in my head, and an annoyed huff rumbled in my chest. I had told Jiraiya about my encounter with it shortly after we left Konoha. It had been a short conversation, he wasn't even mad at me for forgetting to mention it any earlier. He had been very lenient towards me like that recently; probably still worried about me.

Since then he's been quizzing me every few nights, wondering if I ever met the Kyuubi again. My answer was always the same.

"No."

Jiraiya hummed lowly as he reached for the ladle. "Well, it's as expected."

I frowned, his vagueness bothered me. "Why do you care so much about the Kyuubi? It's sealed away; we don't have to worry about it."

Jiraiya continued stirring and gave me an easy smile. "The Kyuubi was sealed into you with half its chakra intact for a reason, Naruto. Your father believed you could control it, and so do I."

I blinked in surprise; he had never mentioned that before. _The yondaime thinks I can control it? _I thought back to that one time I saw the massive creature. The thick and malicious chakra had left me nearly paralyzed. I doubted _anyone _could control that. Even though history claims Uchia Madara had been able to subjugate it, but just how did he do that?

Yet, both Jiraiya and my father expects me to do something similar.

"That's a pretty lofty expectation." I muttered, and to my surprise, Jiraiya laughed.

"True," he answered, clearly amused. "I do have high expectations, and I'm sure your father had as well, the seal on your gut proves that much. Still, it's _you _who keep raising the bar. I haven't seen anyone with a drive like you before. Not even the yondaime pushed himself like this."

Jiraiya rarely praised me, and I could feel my lips stretch into a self-conscious, yet pleased smile.

"I'm curious though, as to where you get your motivation."

At that, I glanced away from my sensei.

_My motivation?_ I knew he was worried about me, more than he lets on, but that was an odd question. _But . . . where _does _my motivation come from? _I don't play around anymore, I don't go looking for people my age and I don't explore the places we visit anymore either. _I don't even talk all that much these days_, I realized slowly. _No wonder he's worried. _I tried to put words to my thoughts.

"Everything just feels so-" I struggled to find the right word "-insignificant now. Everything but training, I mean. And these past years I've been wasting my time, running around doing nothing. I have to catch up, and to do that, I have to train hard. Otherwise I'll never surpass them, my parents." By the end of it, I felt oddly embarrassed for some reason, Jiraiya nodded slowly to my words.

"Well, I'll accept that for now, Naruto." He told me, and I could hear his tone shift into a more serious one. "But I don't think you know why you train so hard yourself, not entirely at least."

I looked up as he began to pour our stew into two wooden bowls. "What do you mean?" I asked warily, and took the steaming bowl he handed me. Jiraiya scooped some food into his mouth and answered with his mouth full.

"You're scared."

That statement made me angry, "I'm not scared!"

"I think you are, and it's only natural. You don't want to repeat what happened to you-" He held up an arm in order stem my flow of words "-and because of that you fill your time with training. You can't sit idle, if you did you'd have to think and remember, and you don't want to remember. So you fill your days with something that has meaning to you, and right now that's training."

I tried to pick apart his arguments in my head; I wanted to find mistakes, something that popped his reasoning. I came up short, and slowly and despairingly, I had to concede to his points.

"Still, I'm not really that afraid of anything." I protested, and ate some of the shortly forgotten dinner I had in my hands.

"Fear is a natural thing, Naruto, we need it to survive." He looked at me as he helped himself to some more stew. "It's actually a positive thing in small doses, it keeps you sharp, and your sense for danger might just save your skin one day. The important thing is not to let it take over, fear stops being beneficial when it hinders or paralyzes you."

I grumbled into my bowl and threw him an ugly look. _He's being awfully wise tonight. _

"You know,-" my attention shifted back to him again when I recognized his serious tone "-we could have removed your memories of that night. The Yamanaka clan is very good when it comes to mind techniques; I think the sandaime had initially planned to remove that incident from your head."

There was a brief silence, when I answered I was surprised at my own toneless voice. "What happened then?"

"We didn't want to make that decision without your concession, but when you woke you seemed to deal with it in your own way. Every shinobi has to face the harsh world we live in someday, and when you seemed to get by on your own, we decided not to interfere. Would you have preferred to get it wiped?"

"Would things have started to come back over the years?" I asked.

"I don't really know, maybe."

"I'm not sure, right now I would have said no, but back then . . . if you'd offered I might have."

"That's what we figured."

A long silence settled down over us. I noted that darkness had descended on us completely while we had conversed, and I cursed myself. _I'm supposed to be aware of my surroundings, had anyone with an understanding of compressing ones chakra signature ambushed us I wouldn't have been able to notice them in time. _I finished my dinner and wrapped myself in a blanket before I picked up my earlier discarded book. The night air was getting cold.

Our conversation for the night, however, was not over apparently. Jiraiya spoke up again once he put down his dinner bowl. He was cheerful again now.

"It's problematic though, I didn't anticipate we'd already get this far with you." I put a thumb in my book to keep the page before I raised my eyebrows at him.

"In a few years now, I won't have any clue in what to do with you." He replied matter-of-factly.

"Uh-wait, what!" I exclaimed heatedly from my seat, I pointed at him angrily. "That's not something an apprentice wants to hear, _sensei!_"

He laughed at me again, which only fueled my anger. "That was poorly worded. We've been going through material so fast, there's not much left for me to teach you. Don't look at me like that! This is actually great really! But you see, I was only ever supposed to make you ready for your genin exams, anything beyond that was never discussed."

"And we're running out of material?" I asked, blinking like an owl. That seemed strange to me, could you ever actually run out of things to learn?

"Right now I know you'd pass your genin examination with ease, your bunshin might hold you back a bit-"

"Oi! You taught me the kage bunshin, and that one is way better!"

Jiraiya slumped his shoulders in a placating manner. "In most instances yes, but not always. Either way, that's beside the point. We've completely ignored the previous training regime I had for us these past six weeks. Actually, we're almost _done _with the old schedule."

"How long was it _supposed _to last then?" I wanted to know.

"Until you were about twelve years old."

A heavy silence wrapped around us. My eight birthday had passed only three months ago. _How and when did we go through nearly four years of training material! That's huge! _Then I began considering it.

"Well, it's not that odd when you think about it, I mean our old schedule. It's from when we only trained every now and then for an hour or two, right?"

Jiraiya grunted an affirmative.

"It's not that odd at all then, I rarely worked on stuff back then. And we haven't done a single mission in a long time either, which is time consuming."

Another grunt.

"Why is this important anyways? I don't get this." I told him and put my book away, I had a feeling I wouldn't get any more reading done tonight.

For a moment, everything was silent apart from the crackling fire.

"The sandaime has some big plans for you, you know. And I think he wants you to graduate with your own age class, build some friendships, that sort of thing."

"Oh," I said, relieved. "Then it isn't that important after all then, no worries, right?"

Jiraiya shook his head.

"I think that for Hiruzen, it _is _important. He never says it aloud, but when he talks about you, I always get the feeling that he wants you to success him. Gaining allies and political support is important in that avenue, and that's probably why he wants you to be in the class with your own peers. It would be easier that way. You wouldn't stick out as much, which you already do."

That stumped me for a moment, Jiji wanted me to become the next Hokage? That touched me far deeper than I wanted to admit.

"Even so, it doesn't really matter. We'll just keep training, and the Hokage will make his decision when the time comes. If I'm enrolled as a genin, then that's fine, it might stomp my progress a bit, but not for much! I'll use all my free time to train and continue to get stronger!"

He grinned at me. "All right then, I'll make you a strong ninja and do what I've always done with a problem. Dump it at my sensei's feet and let him deal with it. Who knows, he just might make you Hokage."

I couldn't help but to snort at that, it was just so very _Jiraiya. _

**A/N Next chapter starts a mini-arc of sorts, lots of action! You had better check it out!**


	4. The amphitheater

**A/N Hi, new installment here. **

**I would like to thank everybody who reviews me, last chapter I received two particularly large and helpful reviews. One was an anonymous guest, the other was under the penname Alexnder, and both of them pointed out things that could be improved/changed. Special thanks to you two.**

**Alexnder also stated that to him, the first person view was plain distracting. Something I've been considering lately myself, now I'm on the fence on whether I should change the perspective or not. (It would take a day or two, but it's very easily changed.) Please read this chapter and give some input, would you like the story as it is, or should I change it to a third person POW? **

The Other Path

The Amphitheater

I slumped to my knees and let an exhausted breath escape my lips.

_It's impossible!_

I slowly laid myself down on the floor and blinked blankly up at the dark ceiling, my bare back felt hot against the woodwork. The room I was in was rented. The old pervert was outside, no doubt hunting women this evening too. I took calming breaths and held up my palms. They looked as if I had slammed them down on a hot oven before twisting them around for a second. That's how they felt too. I would have been more careful, but I healed fast. Pain was a constant irritation I had long ago gotten used to.

What I was not used to, was my lack of improvement.

Whatever task Jiraiya-sensei gave me, I would always complete it, more often than not I would do it quickly too. This time was different. My father's jutsu, the Rasengan, was not doable. At least, not without a lifetime of practice. My respect for my father had reached new heights, it baffled me how anyone could reach a level of shape manipulation to this degree, much less _create _something like this. I was awed. In addition, I was more frustrated than I had ever been in my young life.

It's been over a year since I left Konoha with Jiraiya, and my dedication to training was as strong as ever. Over the past year, I've travelled far and wide with my sensei. The places I haven't seen of the elemental nations yet are steadily thinning out. Together we've done several C-ranked missions, many of them picked up by Jiraiya when he leaves to report to the Hokage, but some of them have actually been forwarded to us by the use of messenger hawks.

I've improved a lot over the course of our journeys. Every day I rise early to the same routine of constant training. A typical day for me would start with a morning exercise before I eat. Most days I follow this up with training in taijutsu for 3-4 hours, either alone or with Jiraiya's help. After that, I normally eat again. I then usually practice with chakra, but the length of the exercise and how long I do it varies a lot. My evenings are mostly swallowed by reading and studying. Jiraiya has told me that my historical knowledge is becoming less and less ignorant. I was steadily improving in fuinjutsu and mathematics, and in fields like geography, I was beginning to become impeccable. My biological knowledge was also growing, and it showed in my spars with Jiraiya. I know where I can't afford to be hit. In addition, my interest in alchemy had taken an upturn lately, and at night, I often stayed up reading or experimenting on the subject. It was a healthy interest considering my profession, some knowledge on poisons and antidotes would no doubt become useful.

I was moving forward on all fronts, I was improving, and yet . . .

Yet, after an entire week's worth of practice, I still couldn't get down how to do the rasengan properly. I wouldn't have been this upset if I'd had some degree of progress, but I had nearly _nothing _to go on. The technique was quite simply impossible for me to do. I had pranced past the first and second stage of the technique in the span of two days, and then I discovered the seemingly impossible conundrum of combining the two first phases.

My chakra control was - according to Jiraiya-sensei - very good, given my large reserves. I was able to spin my chakra within the water balloon and I could blow the rubber balls with relative ease, but I could not _combine_ the necessary control and power into the third step. I would either explode the balloon, or I would use too little power, doing both at the same time was impossible. After days of work, I only experienced minor improvements.

I growled and fisted my hands in pent-up frustration, was it just not possible for me to do this? I got up and slowly treaded into the kitchen to fetch myself some water. Balloon pieces covered the floor; it made my failure even more obvious. I sighed and picked up a discarded blue shirt I had thrown off earlier. I had to admit that Jiraiya might be right this time; it didn't look like I was going to be able to learn the rasengan anytime soon.

_Should I give up for now then? Try again when I'm better? I guess . . ._

Therefore, in a rare moment where the mere thought of more training repulsed me, I left the room to explore the city. I might have found Katoda city an interesting place before, but the world had less of a pull on me these days, and I was moody to boot. I walked down the muddied streets as dusk settled over the city. A distant part of me noticed the worn down houses and the shifty crowd I passed.

This was the eastern nations all right, I could recognize that alone by glancing at the people. Their eyes were guarded and their bodies were huddled in to present a smaller frame, a smaller target. I was eyed with a wide range of emotions; I recognized apathy, suspicion and scorn. This was a city in marsh country. No one here walked alone.

Of course, no one but me.

I tensed when the familiar sound of flesh hitting flesh reached my ears. I concentrated on my hearing and stared down a slightly waterlogged alley. It was dark, but I could definitely hear a scuffle, there was a grunt of pain. Without thought, I ran down the dark sideway.

It was four men, all relentlessly kicking at someone obscured. They were cursing the person, one was even laughing. I didn't really stop to think or consider anything. I just acted.

I ran up to them and performed a leap-kick at the man closest to me. The flying heel kick was solid enough to do permanent damage to his lumbar region; he slumped to the ground breathlessly. I turned to my right and buried my palm into an unprepared man's stomach, he bent over and I could hear him retch. I whirled around and grabbed an arm trying to hit me; I squeezed down hard and used my other arm to snap the limp thing at the elbow. A wailing cry filled the night air. The last one tried to kick me; I simply grabbed his leg and tipped him off balance. He fell ungracefully into piles of stinking garbage.

I looked down at the dark shape they had all been kicking at only a moment ago. It was a young man, he was obviously beaten, but he could have been far worse off. I had gotten there in time. He tensed when I tried to help him stand.

"Are you all right?" I asked him and completely ignored the quiet moans and retching around me. He glanced up at me and nodded slowly, I tried to help him up again, and we managed it this time. I walked with him out of the alley and asked if he needed help finding a doctor.

He smiled weakly, "no I'll be fine, but boy, you were really showing them there." His voice was a bit strained.

"Do you fight at the amphitheater? You got a rank? I bet you do. " He eyed me with wonder and admiration.

"Uh, no, I don't – I'm just visiting, I've never been here before." I told him hastily, he glanced down at me in surprise, but nodded. However, he had managed to pique my curiosity.

"Amphitheater?"

"You've never heard of the theater?" He glanced down at me again, but continued quickly. "People looking for strong opponents go there all the time. They come from all over the elemental nations just to fight. Well, I kinda get it; you can make a lot of money if you're any good. I was sure you were a combatant." He told me smilingly, and then he added: "although you look really young. What are you, ten? Eleven?"

I nodded, but it was a lie. I was nine. I guess I looked older.

"So, this place, where is it then?" I asked him. I was always looking for ways to improve myself, and this was just too good to pass up on.

"You wanna fight? Well, I guess – I mean, you definitely got the skills!" he told me and scratched the back of his head in a show of self-consciousness I recognized easily.

"Uhm, all right listen." He gave me the directions a bit hesitantly and I thanked him afterwards.

"No, don't thank me, it's the least I could do after . . . you know." He gave me a slight smile, and I returned it.

"Not a problem, I was looking to blow off some steam anyways." I told him, and I meant it. We parted after that, it didn't take me long to find the stone stairs he mentioned. They led underground, where the theater was situated. The stairs were dark with the rare exception of a weak ceiling light. I could hear shouting below, and a bright light was flooding up towards me.

I had expected the place to be unpleasant. A small rundown area maybe, with a few nasty people grouping around, gambling. However, that was not the case. Painfully sharp white lights glared down at me from a very tall ceiling, my eyes narrowed to slits and I held a hand up to shield my eyes from the sudden brightness. I blinked several times while my eyes adapted. The room was buzzing with multitudes of sounds, excited chatter, loud cheering and incessant roaring. The air was hot and filled with so many different scents and smells my nose was briefly overwhelmed.

I peeked through my half-closed eyes, and was awed. The area was enormous! A massive stadium claimed the center; large tribunes with great masses of people circled it. My eyes were immediately drawn to the small squares on the stadium. Several pairs of people were fighting each other. The crowd roared, and my eyes swept over the stadium to see a man holding his fists up in victory.

I continued watching, and was disappointed to see that most of the fighters didn't have much of a clue about fighting. Only one even remotely impressed me, and I don't think he posed much of a challenge to me. I scoffed; one contestant had instantly surrendered when he met an opponent with a slight weight advantage. I was tempted to leave. Fighting here would not be worth my time.

"Think you can do better, boy?" A slippery voice from my left said. I halfway turned my head, enough to keep him in eyesight. He was tall with black slick hair and dark clothes; his back was leaning against the wall in a laid-back manner. He had probably watched me since I first entered.

"Yes."

He smiled secretively. "A runt like you, I very much doubt that."

"Doubt all you want." I told him and turned to leave.

"Hold up kid."

I stopped.

"If that's true, then we can make a good profit, you and I." His voice was sleek and oily, but not malicious. I turned around fully and eyed him carefully.

"I have enough money as it is," I told him. It was true, although most of it was in an inaccessible account. Missions paid well, even the C-rank ones I did with Jiraiya from time to time. "And those guys down there aren't really a challenge." I added.

"True, then again, they're unranked, of course they're terrible." He explained nonchalantly. I was suddenly interested again. I remembered the person I had helped had asked about a rank.

"What's unranked then?" I asked, and threw a sideway glance down at the stadium. A man was trying to pull someone's arm out of its socket, but he was doing a poor job of it. I hid a shiver.

"The lowest on the pecking order," he told me all-knowingly and waved his right hand. "The better contestants here all fight on stories below us. You see, this building goes deep underground, the tougher ranked fights happens progressively farther below."

"I'll go down and have a look then." I suggested. He laughed at me, and I couldn't keep myself from frowning.

"You can't just _go _down there kid, you need to be ranked to do that, or a lot of cash. The better your rank is the farther down you can go. Of course, to get a rank you need to win five consecutive matches up here."

"Okay, where do I sign up?"

He blinked at my rapid turnaround, "You sure decide fast kid. All right, you'll need a sponsor to make arrangements. That's where I come in; I'll deal with the matchups and the bets, while you hammer your opponent." He had moved from the wall by now, and he was grinning like a fool.

"So, what do you say kid, wanna give it a try?"

xXx

My opponent was thick-built, muscular and tanned, and he was waving enthusiastically to the crowds. I straightened and smoothed out what I had personally labelled as "civilian clothes." A common black t-shirt, white shorts and a blue and white pair of sneakers. I must have made the very picture of child innocence with my golden hair and blue eyes. I could hear the crowds laugh and point at me, it was perfectly reasonable of course. I _was_ a child. Still, I wish I could just grow up already.

The judge signaled us both and waved powerfully with his arms, and the match begun.

I took three fast steps forward and shoved my open palm forcefully into my opponent's stomach, he fell to the floor, and the match ended.

_Even easier than I thought._

I pocketed my hands and exited the stadium to a shocked silence; I could hear the murmurs begin.

My next match was much the same, not 20 minutes after my first one I emerged from the waiting rooms. I was greeted with an excited outburst from the stands this time. The grizzly old man I met on the square mat was vary of me; the crowd's reactions had efficiently told him I was not to be underestimated. It didn't help him much.

Like last time, once the match begun I stepped forward quickly and attacked with an open palm strike. He did a mistake when he tried to block me; he should have just dodged, even though he was still just prolonging the inevitable. I caught his blocking arm with my left hand and thrust my palm into his stomach. He slumped to the ground, but he wouldn't yield. I then forced his arm into a painful position and added pressure to it by stepping on his shoulder blade. He surrendered quickly.

The third match went the same way.

My fourth time on the flat square was also just as easy.

By the time my fifth match came around the crowds were roaring like mad when I stepped forth. My opponent surrendered before we even began. The judge informed me it still counted as a win.

I had gotten the five consecutive wins needed to advance in rank, but the clock was almost past midnight and I felt I had to get back soon. I had very much freedom with Jiraiya, but it was getting late. I left in search of my sponsor to tell him I was done for the night. I found him in the stands, collecting hard cash from some very sour-looking people. He quickly finished up with them, pranced over to me, and grinned fiercely.

"That was a mean punch you were throwing out there, nice one kid!" Technically, I had not used a punch, but I refrained from lecturing him. Adults hated it when I corrected them. Instead, I shrugged tiredly.

"I guess, but it's getting late, so I better get back. I'll be here tomorrow."

"Good! Good, I'll be waiting." He assured me. Before I left, he stuffed some bills into my hands.

It actually never occurred to me that I had never even asked about my sponsor's name.

xXx

I ate a large breakfast next morning, boiled eggs, dark bread and roasted ham. I told a red-eyed and hangover Jiraiya that I would be out for the day, and then I left quickly. It proved difficult to find myself back to the amphitheater, but after asking around I found it soon enough. I walked down the stone steps to the underground complex with a certain amount of excitement bubbling in me. I was surprised to find the place nearly empty compared to last night's crowd. However, it made it easy for me to find my sponsor. He was up in the top right corner of the stadium, standing by a metallic door and conversing with two other men. I walked across the dim-polished stadium floor and intruded on their conversation.

" . . . with just one move, I've got a pretty good feeling about this one, Atsushi. I'm sure once –" His sentence died in his mouth when he noticed me. A burst of excitement quickly filled in and covered his surprise.

"That's him! The boy I was talking about!" He gestured towards me eagerly. The two other men studied me before they shared a look. That made me insecure. _Who are these people? _

"He hasn't even hit puberty yet." The one on the right pointed out. I ignored the sting; I was used to that particular remark.

"That's the best thing about him! No one expects him to win!"

I decided to intervene at this point; I cleared my throat and asked. "Can we go down a level now? I want to see some of these ranked fighters."

"Wha- oh. My, you're eager boy! But there's no point really, nothing happens here at daytime, people come here during the evening. As you can see, the stands are nearly empty, apart from a few odd ones." He smiled genially at me, and it seemed odd on him.

"And you?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Business." He replied sleekly, and gave the two men behind him a telling look. They both shrugged before they walked away.

"Follow me then." I blinked at my sponsor, who opened the metal door I had spotted earlier and waited for me.

"I thought there was no point." I said, but walked through the door anyways. We entered a green hallway devoid of any illumination. I walked in his footsteps.

"I wasn't lying either; we just need to get the paperwork out of the way."

"Paperwork?" I repeated questioningly. He nodded.

"Yes, from here on things are taken more seriously, they'll want to know your name, age, gender and so on. You should read the restriction guide too, it's mostly about weapon restrictions, it's a short little thing, don't worry. Of course, you'll be given your rank too."

I nodded rapidly to his words and tried to cover up my growing anxiety, would there be an age requirement? How old did you have to be? I couldn't use my real name either . . .

"Here we are." My sponsor's sudden declaration threw me out of my silent pondering. I looked up and saw that the corridor forked here, straight ahead was a white reception desk. A thin woman sat behind the desk, she looked up from her sheets of paper to look at us.

"Give him the registration papers please." My sponsor nodded down at me and I straightened my shoulders and tried to look taller. It was unnecessary, seeing as the receptionist didn't even glance at me. She quickly fished out a stack of papers and slid them over the desk to me. I picked them up and glanced over the content.

"Down that way kid, first room to the right. I'll deal with things here. You can read, right?" He added the last part hesitantly.

I frowned at him and told him sourly that, of course I could. The room I was directed to was small, circular and non-descript, with low profile coaches, chairs and tables. The air was stale and foreign to me. I picked a pen from a cup on a nearby table and sat down to read.

I decided to fill in my name as Naruto, but I added no surname. I was relieved when I saw that there was no age restriction at all, and wrote down '9' on the blank. I quickly checked on the _male _square. Then I had to accept the fact that I might incur severe damage to my body during a match, or even death. I hesitated for a short moment. Then I shrugged and signed it.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, I was an idiot.

xXx

I went back to the reception with my papers filled out and gave them to the receptionist. My sponsor handed me a small object when we left together. I rolled it in my hands; it was an oiled circular piece of wood, the kanji for "one" was inscribed into the surface. I looked up. "What's this, my rank?"

"Exactly."

"I'm already number one?" I asked smugly.

"Rank one is the lowest, Naruto." He replied just as smugly. _He picked up my name from the registration paper? _I gave him a dirty look and pulled my hands behind my head. _That was stupid of me, I definitely don't trust this guy, and I can't do amateurish mistakes like that anymore._

"That doesn't make much sense, what's the highest rank then?"

"The ranks of the Amphitheatre follows the stories you fight on. You'll be going down to the first ranked stage, one story down, ergo, rank one. There's twenty-three stories here, so the best rank is twenty-three. If I'm not wrong only one person at a time can hold that rank." We reached the end of the hallway and he opened the metal door again, it squealed loudly and nearly drowned out my next question.

"How do I rank up then?"

"By winning," he told me flippantly. I gave him an irritated look, and he amended by saying. "Read the instruction book you got, it's all explained there."

"Yeah, I guess, but I'm out of here. I'll come back tonight." I walked towards the stands and gave him a wave of my hand as a goodbye.

"Looking forward to it." I heard him say.

xXx

By the time I was back at the hotel, it was noon. I killed time by reading the instruction guide I had been given. It contained a few surprises.

Contestant's bellow the tenth floor – I assume the guide meant it figuratively, since the building was actually an underground complex, down would be up and vice versa – were not allowed to use any "obscured arts" or "inborn abilities". For me, that meant I couldn't use chakra or jutsu's in my fights. Not until I advanced to rank ten at least. On the fifth floor and above weapons were allowed, but not on any of the lower stories. Moreover, one couldn't use concealed weapons, and some weapons were simply prohibited.

Not much of a problem for me, as I didn't have a weapon. I had asked about the subject, and Jiraiya said we would go through some weapon training next year. I read about the ranking system after that. It appeared that no matter how well you perform during the five consecutive wins, you always end up as rank one to begin with. _It figures._

From there on you are in a so-called promotional series. The way I understood it, you had to win two out of three matches in order to advance. You could advance rapidly through the ranks like that until you forfeited more than one of the three fights. If you lost a series then you would be stuck on your current rank for seven matches, if you won five out of those you would be up for another promotional series. If you won, you could advance. However, if you lost the series, you would remain in your current bracket. Moreover, if you lost three out of the seven matches, you would _descend_ a rank.

I threw away the rulebook and laid down on the couch, it would be several hours before the sun set. I grumbled to myself and wondered if I should try to get any further on my rasengan training. I immediately shook away the thought; it would not yield any results. I ended up practicing brush strokes for the majority of the day, I also read up on some of the math books Jiraiya had gotten me.

By evening time, I was ready for some action.

xXx

"It looks like we have a very _young _challenger tonight, he must be new! Hmm, Yes! He is! Oh ho! _Nine_ year old Naruto is up for his series tonight, let's see if he can advance!"

I immediately hated the commentator's condescending tone, and why did she have to mention my age?

I glanced over the tribunes and almost cringed at how vehemently some laughed at me. I pulled my eyes away and walked to my designated square. I noticed how the platform here was elevated over the ground by a few inches. There was only four squares here in this stadium, instead of a dozen, as it had been above. These were decidedly bigger by comparison.

I stepped onto the platform and watched as my opponent did the same. She was a tall woman with a proud gait. I dipped my head in a small greeting when our eyes met. The judge signaled us to come closer to the center, and we did as instructed. He raised his right hand, and slashed it down in an exaggerated display.

She charged, and I could read her attack a mile away. Not because I was very good at reading people, she was just that open. I sidestepped her kick and quickly went offensive. I jumped high, spun 180° in the air and struck out my left leg against the woman's temple. It was a fairly normal yet powerful kick, but the way I executed it was unusual, I had to jump a great deal higher in order to reach my opponent's head. Being little was a hassle.

I landed awkwardly, but managed to retain my balance at least. I turned and saw the woman lying on the ground, she was groaning and her eyes were closed. The judge awarded me the knockout. It would seem I had to advance a few levels before I could have a real challenge. I straightened myself and walked off the platform and over the stadium. The commentator's explosive rant about young prodigies chimed in my ears.

xXx

Throughout the night, I fought and advanced in rank quickly. When I traversed down a story, the crowd would demean and laugh at me. I changed their conceived image of me with a quick victory. By midnight, I had reached the fourth story. I met some resistance there, no one managed to actually harm me, but some blocked and shrugged of a few of my attacks. I won by locking down their body, I waited until the pain became too much for them. I suppose I could have won with a landslide of points too, I never took that long though.

The waiting room was a pain; my time there was as boring as it could get. The other contestant's there kept giving me weird looks. I decided I would bring a book to pass the time tomorrow. Every time I advanced to a new floor, my sponsor kept going on about how good I was. He also wanted me to make my fights flashier, or at the very least make it seem as if I struggled a bit.

I told him no. My fights would become flashy soon enough.

I reached the fifth floor next, where weapons was allowed. It was interesting.

"And will you look at that! Young Naruto _bends _and Kitaro's blade flies harmlessly over him! Goodness that's a nimble body!" The commentator was spitting out five words a second, I barely heard him though. I had complete focus on my fight; this was a difficult one.

I tumbled to the stone-covered floor and dodged his odachi with inches to spare. _His reach is ridiculous with that thing! _I bounced back up to my feet and jumped backwards. He chased after me, and stabbed at me. I dodged and immediately went for the opening he left. I struck at his right wrist with a tiger strike, and his odachi clattered to the ground. I barely managed to brush aside his left fist with a simple block.

He grazed my ribs with his right hand, and even that hurt. I snapped my hands around his arm when he tried to pull it back and used all my insubstantial weight to yank the arm down and towards me. It half-way worked. At least, it was enough to reach his face with my knee. I felt his nose crunch under the force; it was an awkward and uncomfortable sensation.

He clutched his bloodied nose and did not rise from where he fell. He yielded.

"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! What a finish from Naruto! From simply dodging around to full turnaround on a second's notice!"

I advanced again and continued my winning streak. From time to time, I met someone with a weapon. They were too dependent on it to be a major threat to me though. I started struggling when I reached the seventh floor. My small frame and tiny muscle mass was starting to become a major hindrance. _Everyone_ was stronger and faster than me, I had so far been a lot better at utilizing the strength and speed I had, but my limits were starting to show now.

I nearly lost my second match on the seventh floor to a skilled and unpredictable female; she had definitely been subject to at least _some_ shinobi training at some point in her life. It was at that point I realized that I had been fighting nearly non-stop all night, the time was currently 6:00 Am in the morning. _It can't be helped, this place is only open at night._ My sponsor checked up on me in the waiting room, he wanted me to call it quits and rest. Come back tomorrow, he told me. Against my sponsor's judgment, I decided to have one last fight. I would not always be at the top of my game; this would be a great way to test myself. I would experience my endurance's limit next fight.

I didn't even offer half an ear to the commentator when I walked out on the eight-floor stadium. There was only two platforms here and they were larger too. I walked to the one with the number _"2" _written on the side of the elevated platform. I felt a small measure of energy jog up my veins when I stepped onto the stone covered ground. I was in a rough shape. My T-shirt was dirty and torn in two places, the shorts I wore was rumpled and my left leg was wrapped in bandages after I had taken a shallow wound during my previous match. I was punched in the face earlier, but the mark was barely visible now. I healed fast.

My opponent stepped on to the platform; it was a man of average height, although he seemed a bit thin. He had pale white skin, which blended well with the white kimono he wore. His dark eyes were neutral when they gazed at me. He looked a great deal fresher than I felt.

The judge stepped forth, and I caught myself thinking this might not have been such a great idea. I pushed the thought away, and forced myself to focus on my opponent. This was my last fight, but I didn't have much left in me. I had to end this fast! The commentator was raving on about something, but I tuned her out.

The judge signaled, and the match began.

I sprinted forward and engaged with a straight up punch for his midsection. He merely leaned away, without even bothering to move his feet. It left him open, but Jiraiya's words from a hot training session crossed my mind for a split second. _If your opponent is ever suspiciously open, go for his legs instead! _

I bent down and performed a sweeping kick directed at his knee joint. His feet glided over the stone worked floor and he avoided my kick with a silent grace that I both admired and feared. A second later when he attacked, my fear became more prominent. He was _fast. _He was _strong_. He was _merciless._

He came at me with a rapid punch, which I only barely dodged; he then followed up with a series of strikes fast as a snake. I held up my arms, I blocked, I dodged, I tried to disengage but my efforts was only vaguely successful, my body quickly began protesting against my movements. My counters was sidestepped with ease and he continued his incredible display of taijutsu. He wove his attacks together in a pattern I had until now believed only my sensei could do. All the while his face was serene and undisturbed, as if he was bored.

I internally cringed as my arms once again blocked a harsh kick. The force pushed me several inches across the floor. Then he appeared in front of me, _so fast!_ I instinctively shot out my palm. He brushed it aside with ease, and sent out a fast fist at my face. I leaned away and simultaneously snapped out my left leg in a desperate kick.

For a blissful and slow moment, I thought it would connect. Instead, he grabbed my leg by the ankle and yanked. Only standing on my right leg, I slid across the floor towards him. I saw him form a fist. _No!_ Using the momentum, I jumped with my standing leg, and saw it form a perfect arch towards his head. This time, I felt it hit, and then pain consumed me.

"What an incredible exchange of blows! Ouch! Still, we can see who got the most out of that! Akio literarily _lifted_ Young Naruto off the ground!"

With each heartbeat, a wave of pain flooded through my chest like hot iron. I could feel blood well up in my mouth. My left leg was strangely warm; I realized it was in pain from the fall. However, it felt nice, a distraction to my pained torso. Which felt smothered. _The ribs are broken_? No, I'd experienced that before, and this was different. I took my time and stilted myself back on my feet. Dimly, I could hear the commentator appraise my efforts lavishly, as if I was an ascending hero.

The man in the kimono was looking at me with unconcealed disbelief and wonder. I was strangely satisfied when I saw the discoloration around his right eye. He then did something for which I have no explanation. He raised up his right hand and said clearly.

"I yield."

With that, he walked off the platform to a hushed crowd, all the while laughing quietly to himself.

**A/N Please review and tell me if you would like a change in the perspective or not. Or if you have some other input, that would be great.**


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